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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22475041">they say if you love her let her go</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/archers_and_spies/pseuds/archers_and_spies'>archers_and_spies</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Avengers: Endgame (Movie), F/M, Fix-It, damn it marvel, i’ll do it myself, rolls up my sleeves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:02:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>890</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22475041</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/archers_and_spies/pseuds/archers_and_spies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Clint had fallen <i>with</i> Natasha?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>they say if you love her let her go</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrysimmons/gifts">starrysimmons</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/stvckys/gifts">stvckys</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was inspired by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BzVR5zClIiV/?igshid=1aowpa96ftpo1">this lovely piece of artwork</a>. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the original artist on Tumblr, give credits guys it’s important!!1!1!<br/>I don’t own the characters or places, don’t sue me, and the title is from Lauv’s <i>Superhero</i>.</p><p>Requested by and dedicated to Ariel :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>No, no, <i>no</i>. Natasha is not supposed to die this way, damn it. She deserves to go in a final blaze of glory, not here on this creepy weird planet where everyone’s going to inevitably forget about her and her sacrifice.</p><p>And so Clint holds on to her wrist as tight as he can, but gravity’s pulling and her hand’s slipping and they both know it, it’s only a matter of time before she falls down, down, down.</p><p>“Let me go,” she says gently, and she’s <i>smiling</i>, like she’s already made the decision and is at peace with it, but not for Clint. Never.</p><p>He finds himself begging, pleading, because ever since Natasha came into his life he’s had a purpose, a path, and if she’s gone he wouldn’t be able to live with it. He wouldn’t be able to <i>live</i>.</p><p>“It’s okay,” she says, as if that could comfort him in any way, and maybe she knows he would blame himself if they waited until his grip slipped, because she’s kicking the edge of the cliff, propelling herself off--</p><p>He’s screaming <i>no</i> and the next thing he knows, he’s using one of his arrows from the quiver on his back to cut the rope of his grappling hook until he, too, is falling, falling. The wind is rushing but Natasha sees him and he sees the moment she realises what he’s doing, the horror in her eyes. He reaches out and pulls her close, hears her heartbeat thundering. </p><p>She’s scared to die.</p><p>He makes it his personal mission to ensure she doesn’t, however he can in the span of a few seconds. Maybe if he twisted their bodies together this way, he would cushion the fall somehow, and she’d survive, she’d live. Please live please live <i>please</i></p><p>----</p><p>“That’s a lot of blood. That’s-- not good,” he pants, looking down at his right leg that was shot twice, spread out on the car’s backseat with Tasha’s help.</p><p>“Maybe don’t look. Maybe that’ll help?” Natasha suggests feebly, still attempting to stop the bleeding with her bare hands.</p><p>“Right,” he responds, trying to ignore the burning in his thigh and calf when Natasha hands him a bottle of alcohol. Without thinking, he takes the bottle and drinks from it directly. He doesn’t know if it’s helping, but tries to convince himself it is. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you carry a bottle of vodka wherever you go.”</p><p>“Oh, this? It was in the center console.” She leans sideways to tap at said console. Clint doesn’t see how the bottle could fit inside, but assumes that everything’s possible through Natasha Romanoff. He’s probably right. Natasha leans in a little and his breath catches at the close proximity.</p><p>Is it just him, or is this car more cramped than it seemed? Is it just the alcohol, or does Natasha look especially nice up close, and smell good too?</p><p>“Why are you looking at me like that?”</p><p>And he nearly answers her. <i>Because you’re perfect and every time I see you I fall even harder and I don’t have much but I love you with everything that I do have, I love you I love you I love you</i>--</p><p>“Clint. <i>Clint</i>,” Natasha says, and he realises he’s slowly drifting under. He blinks, trying to concentrate, but he can’t, everything hurts and it’s dark outside and--</p><p>“Stay with me. You’re bleeding out, you can’t-- Clint, come on--” There’s a hint of desperation in her voice. “You’ve had worse, you can… stay awake… right?”</p><p>“I dunno, Tash,” he slurs.</p><p>“Extraction arrives in just an hour, please just hang on--” She looks so genuinely <i>scared</i> that he isn’t surprised she called for an extraction team. He wonders how much dignity she had to let go of to do that.</p><p>“‘M sorry,” he says, or tries to, at least.</p><p>“Barton!” He thinks he hears her say.</p><p>----</p><p>“Clint, wake up.”</p><p>He sits up slowly, taking in everything around him. He’s sitting in the middle of a lake of some sort, but he’s not sinking, which is weird. Natasha’s right beside him, looking at him like it’s a miracle--</p><p><i>Natasha</i>. Everything comes rushing back to him, and when he tries to cup her face with his hands, he finds that he can’t, because their hands are joined and they’re clasping something hard.</p><p>The soul stone. His heart leaps and he carefully transfers it to his other hand so he can hold Natasha's properly.</p><p>“Does this mean what I think it means?” He whispers as he studies the glowing stone, in case this is all just a dream and he’ll wake up if he’s too loud, back to reality where one of them will still have to die. But some part of him is desperately hoping, something he hasn’t done in a long while.</p><p>Natasha leans into him, and it feels good having her this close, able to feel her solidness, hear her heartbeat, which is slowly syncing up with his own.</p><p>Her smile grows and his heart skips a beat, because goddamn she’s so pretty, and she responds, “Yeah. We both get to live.”</p><p>He grasps her hand even tighter. “You know I love you, right? More than anything in this universe.”</p><p>She brings their intertwined fingers up to kiss them. “мой ястреб… I’ve loved you since the beginning.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you’ve read <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22333882"><i>on my way to believing</i></a> and/or <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22064173"><i>to see you again</i></a> then you know I have a thing for inserting car scenes <strike>where one of them is currently bleeding out from gunshot wounds</strike> in the middle, Natasha calling Clint <i>my hawk</i> in Russian and also fluffy endings.</p><p> </p><p> <a href="https://linktr.ee/karasnecklace">Find me on my other platforms here!</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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